Republican who voted to impeach Trump will survive primary challenge, CNN projects, but tough general election looms

(CNN) — Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse, one of the last remaining Republicans in Congress to have voted to impeach Donald Trump, will survive a primary challenge, CNN projects. But the congressman faces a tough general election contest with an opponent backed by the former president.

Newhouse is projected to advance out of the top-two primary in Washington’s 4th Congressional District, along with fellow Republican and Navy veteran Jerrod Sessler. Under state rules, all candidates run on the same primary ballot with the top two finishers, regardless of party, advancing to November.

Newhouse drew Trump’s ire after his vote to impeach the former president over his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. And for the second consecutive cycle, the election marked a test of Trump’s influence in the conservative central Washington district. In 2022, Newhouse emerged out of the primary with a Democratic opponent, shutting out several other Republicans, including Sessler and one backed by Trump.

But with two Republicans advancing from this year’s primary, the general election will pose another challenge for the fifth-term incumbent. Newhouse has won such contests before, defeating a fellow Republican in the 2014 and 2016 general elections for the 4th District, though that was well before his vote to impeach Trump.

Of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in 2021, Newhouse and California Rep. David Valadao are the only two still in Congress. The impeachment vote came when the House charged the former president with “incitement of insurrection” after a pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol in an effort to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential election win.

Valadao advanced out of his own top two primary in California earlier this year and faces a competitive general election against a Democratic opponent.

Trump has gone after Newhouse over the impeachment vote, including in a Truth Social post over the weekend in which he called the congressman “a weak and pathetic RINO … who stupidly voted to impeach me for absolutely no reason.”

“The other Impeachers are mostly all gone, a good thing for the U.S.A.,” Trump wrote. “Newhouse has to go.”

Trump first endorsed Sessler in April, saying he was “MAGA all the way,” and will be “a GREAT Congressman.”

Sessler, who is also a former NASCAR driver, ran in the 2022 primary against Newhouse, but finished in fourth place. In that race, Trump had endorsed another Republican challenger, Loren Culp, who finished third. Newhouse went on to win the general election against Democrat Doug White.

Over the weekend, Trump reiterated his support for Sessler while also backing another Republican, Tiffany Smiley, whom he called “a tremendous America First Candidate.”

Smiley, who has emphasized her background as a nurse and veterans’ advocate, unsuccessfully ran for US Senate in 2022 against Democratic incumbent Patty Murray.

Newhouse was first elected to the House in 2014 after narrowly defeating former NFL star Clint Didier in an all-GOP general election. Prior to his time in Congress, Newhouse was a member of the Washington state House and served as the director of the state Department of Agriculture.

With the impeachment vote looming over the race, the congressman told KEPR News in May: “Some people are still very adamant in their opposition to me because of that, but I gotta tell you, there are a lot of people that will come up to me and say, ‘Hey Dan, maybe I disagree with that one vote, but I support you on all the other things you’re doing. I’m beyond that.’ ”

“And that’s a good thing,” Newhouse said, “because we have so many issues that we face as a nation.”

The-CNN-Wire
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